“The best sort of rings for fawney dropping is the Belchers. They are a good thick looking ring, and have the crown and V. R. stamped upon them. They are 7d. a dozen. I takes my stand now, in my ring-selling, as if I was in a great hurry, and pulls out my watch. I used to have a real one, but now it’s a dummy. ‘Now, ladies and gentlemen,’ says I, ‘I am not permitted to remain more than ten minutes in one spot. I have rings to sell to decide a wager recently made between two sporting noblemen, to the effect that I do not sell a certain quantity of these rings in a given time, at a penny a piece. I can recommend the article as being well worth the money I ask for it, perhaps something more. I do not say they are gold; in fact, I must not say too much, as there is a person in this company watching my proceedings, and seeing that I do not remain more than ten minutes in this spot,’—here I always looks very hard at the most respectable and gentlemanly-looking person among my hearers, and sometimes gives him a wink, and sometimes a nod,—‘but if you should hear anything more about these rings, and you want to purchase, don’t be vexed if I am gone when you want me. The ten minutes has nearly expired; three minutes more; any more buyers? It makes no difference to me whether I sell or not—I get my pay all the same; but, if you take my advice, buy; and perhaps if you was to call at the sign of the Three Balls, as you go home, you may be agreeably surprised, and hear something to your advantage. Perhaps I have said too much. I have one minute more, before I close the establishment. After shutting the box, I dare not sell another in this spot, if you were to offer me 5l. for it; therefore, if you wish to purchase, now is your time.’ I make many a pitch, and do not sell a single ring; and the insults I receive used to aggravate me very much, but I do not mind them now, I’m used to it. The flyest cove among all us ring-sellers is little Ikey, the Jew. There were two used to work the game. They had a real gold ring, just like the ones they were selling, and they always used to pitch near a pawnbroker’s shop. Ikey’s pal would buy a ring for a penny, of the street-seller, and would then say, loud enough to be heard by the bystanders, ‘There’s a pawn shop—I’ll go and ask them to take it in.’ A crowd would follow him. He would enter the pawnbroker’s—present a real gold ring—obtain a loan of 5s., and would present the ticket to the bystanders, who would then buy very fast. When the pitch was over, Ikey’s pal would take the ring out of pawn, and away the two would go to work near some other pawnbroker’s. I have heard Ikey say they have pawned the ring thirty-five times in a day. I tried the same caper; but my pal cut with the gold ring the first day, and I’ve never had another go at that fake since.
“Before I commenced the jewellery line,” continued my candid informant, “a good many years ago, I used to hold horses about Bond-street. Afterwards I was taken as an errand boy at a druggist’s, was out of an errand one day and got 6d. for holding a gentleman’s horse, which kept me nearly an hour; when I went back to my master’s I was told I wasn’t wanted any more. I had been cautioned about stopping of errands two or three times before; however I didn’t like the situation, it was too confining. I next got a place as pot-boy, in Brick Lane. Here I was out one day gathering in the pots. I hung the strap of pots to a railing to have a game at chances (pitch and toss), somebody prigged my strap of pots, and I cut. A few weeks after I was grabbed for this, and got a month at the mill; but I was quite innocent of prigging—I was only careless. When I came out of prison, I went to Epsom races, thinking to get a job there at something or other. A man engaged me to assist him in ‘pitching the hunters.’ Pitching the hunters is the three sticks a penny, with the snuffboxes stuck upon sticks; if you throw your stick, and they fall out of the hole, you are entitled to what you knock off. I came to London with my master the pitcher-hunter, he went to a swag shop in Kent-street, in the Borough, to purchase a new stock. I saw a man there purchasing rings, this was little Ikey, the Jew; some days afterwards I saw him making a pitch, and selling very fast. I had fourpence in my pocket; went to Kent-street, to the swag shops, bought a dozen rings, and commenced selling them. I sold that day three dozen; that wasn’t bad considering that my toggery was very queer, and I looked anything but like one who would be trusted with ten pounds’ worth of gold rings. This wager between the two sporting noblemen has been a long time settling. I’ve been at it more than fifteen years. The origin of it was this here: when sovereigns were first coined, the Jew boys and others used to sell medals and card-counters upon particular occasions, the same as they do now, and shove them in a saucepan lid, with silver paper under them. Captain Barclay, and another of the same sort, bet a wager, that one of these Jew-boys could not dispose of a certain number of real sovereigns in a given time, supposing the Jew-boy cried out nothing more than ‘here’s sovereigns, only a penny a piece.’ The number he was to sell was 50 within the hour, and to take his station at London Bridge. The wager was made, the Jew-boy procured, and the sovereigns put into the pot lid. ‘Here are real sovereigns a penny a piece, who’ll buy?’ he cried; but he sold only a few. The number disposed of, within the hour, I have heard, was seventeen. Those who purchased, when they found that they had really bought sovereigns at a penny a piece, returned for more, but the salesman was gone. A good harvest was afterwards reaped among the Jews, who got up a medal something like a sovereign, and sold them in every quarter of London, for the Captain’s wager soon spread about everywhere. It’s a stale game now; it was so before my time, but I’ve heard the Jews talk about it. The second day I tried the ring dodge, I was a little more successful; indeed every day for some time exceeded the day before, for, as I improved in patter, my sales increased. My appearance, too, was improving. At one time I was a regular swell, sported white kid gloves, white choker, white waistcoat, black ribbon, and a quizzing glass. Some people used to chaff me, and cry out ‘there’s a swell.’ I never was saving, always spent my money as fast as I got it. I might have saved a goodish bit, and I wish I had now. I never had a wife, but I have had two or three broomstick matches, though they never turned out happy. I never got hold of one but what was fond of lush. I live in Westminster, at a padding-ken. I’d rather not tell you where, not that I’ve anything to fear, but people might think I was a nose, if anybody came after me, and they would crab me. I’d rather get something else to do if I could, but I think this is the best street game I could follow. I don’t believe any of the ring-sellers dispose of more than myself, except little Ikey; he now adds other articles, a silver thimble (he calls it), some conundrums, a song-book and a seal, and all for a penny. I tried the same thing, but found I could do just as well with the rings alone. We all expects to do great things during the Exhibition. I think all on us ought to be allowed to sell in the parks. Foreigners are invited to witness specimens of British Industry, and it’s my opinion they should see all, from the highest to the lowest. We did intend petitioning the Prince on the subject, but I don’t suppose it would be any go, seeing as how the slang coves” (the showmen), “have done so, and been refused.”
Of the Street-Sellers of Children’s Gilt Watches.
These articles were first introduced into general street sale about 10 years ago. They were then German made. The size was not much larger than that of a shilling, and to this tiny watch was appended as tiny a chain and seal. The street-price was only 1d., and the wholesale price was 8s. the gross. They were sold at eight of the swag-shops, all “English and foreign,” or “English and German” establishments. From the price it would appear that the profit was 4d. a dozen, but as the street-sellers had to “take the watches as they came,” the profit was but 3d., as a dozen watches in a gross had broken glasses, or were otherwise damaged and unsaleable. The supply of these watches was not equal to the demand, for when a case of them was received, “it could have been sold twice over.” One street-seller told me that he had sold 15 and even 16 dozen of these watches on a day, and that once on a Saturday night, and early on Sunday morning, he had sold 2 gross, or 24 dozen. Such, however, was not the regular sale; a “good week” was a profit of 15s.
About six years ago gilt watches of a very superior kind were sold in the streets in a different way. They were French made, and were at first vended at 1s. each. Some were displayed in case-boxes, fitted up with divisions, in which were placed the watches with the guard-chains, about three-quarters of a yard long, coiled round them. There were also two or three keys, one in the form of a pistol. The others were hung from a small pole, sometimes a dozen, and sometimes two, being so suspended, and they had a good glittering appearance in a bright light; this street fashion still continues. The street-sellers, however, are anxious not to expose these watches too much, as they are easily injured by the weather, and any stain or injury is irreparable. The shilling sale continued prosperously for about six weeks, and then the wholesale price—owing, the street-sellers were told at the swag-shops, to “an opposition in the trade in Paris,”—was reduced to 4s. 6d. the dozen, and the retail street-price to 6d. each. When the trade was “at its best” there were thirty men and twenty women selling these watches, all May, June, and July, and each clearing from 12s. to 20s. (but rarely the latter sum) a week. Last “season” there were for the same period about half the number of sellers mentioned, averaging a profit of about 15d. a day each, or 9s. a week. The cry is—“Handsome present for 6d. Beautiful child’s watch and chain, made of Peruvian metal, by working jewellers out of employ. Only 6d. for a handsome present.”
The vendors of these watches are the regular street-sellers, some of them being tolerably good patterers. One of these men, in the second year of the street-sale of watches, appeared one morning in an apron and sleeves, to which brass and copper filings were made to adhere, and he announced himself as an English working jeweller unemployed, offering his own manufactures for sale, “better finished and more solider nor the French.” The man’s sale was greatly increased. On the following day, however, four other English working jewellers appeared in Leicester-square and its approaches, each in besprinkled apron and sleeves, and each offering the productions of his own handicraft! The apron and sleeves were therefore soon abandoned.
Among the best “pitches,”—for the watch-sellers are not itinerant, though they walk to and fro—are the Regent’s-park, Leicester-square, the foot of London-bridge, and of Blackfriars-bridge, and at the several railway stations.
The principal purchasers, I was told by an intelligent patterer, who sometimes “turned his hand to the watches,” were “fathers and mothers,” he thought, “and them as wished to please such parties.”
Calculating that twenty-five persons now vend watches for twelve weeks in the year, and—as they are 10 per cent. cheaper than they were at the swag-shops—that each clears 8s. weekly, we find 360l. yearly expended in London streets in these toy watches.